Ouch

Hospital today to have a second wisdom tooth extracted and I had expected a fairly easy ride like last time. Things didn't quite work out that way. I'm swelling already - it took a few days last time.

It started well enough, but then after anaesthetising me and slicing me open, I realised things weren't going according to plan. I heard murmurs from the surgeon and assistants, an instrument was dropped at one point, then I was told they wanted a second opinion from the boss. Basically, the tooth was buried deep, under 2-3mm of bone, and the surgeon wasn't comfortable doing it under local anaesthetic. One suggestion was to stitch me up and send me home to keep an eye on it. The boss came in and looked, sucked through his teeth and said "ooh, that's going to be tricky". But ultimately left it to me to decide.

By that time I was ready for it coming out, so decided to press on as planned, under local anaesthetic. I was advised it was a 9/10 on the difficulty level, and one the surgeon would have recommended doing under general anaesthetic if she had seen me first time.

What followed was a lot if drilling (right next to my ear), pushing, pulling, crunching.

After just over an hour, I was done, and allowed to escape with cocodamol, voltarol and anti-biotics as souvenirs to take home. And praise for sitting still and remaining stoic throughout.

And a parting shot from the surgeon. "I'm glad you've taken a week off work, you'll need at least that..."